THE CHIRP, WEST BROM v NORWICH CITY

OVERVIEW

The Hawthorns will play host to Norwich City’s second visit in the space of a few weeks. The Canaries claimed the all important victory a few weeks ago, winning 2-1 thanks to Andrew Surman, Steve Morison and a few splendid stops from John Ruddy. The Yellows are back off to the Midlands on Saturday, looking to progress in the FA Cup.

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

West Brom triumphed impressively away at Stoke last weekend, a Graham Dorrans free-kick at the death nestled in the corner sending the travelling Baggies brigade into raptures. Despite a few decent away results, the Baggies have been far from inspiring when playing at home. With only 2 wins in their last 7, one of those coming in the FA Cup against Cardiff City. Roy Hodgson’s men sit on the perch above the rapidly emerging mini-league, battling relegation from places 16-20. Albion are at present reasonably clear of the drop, 7 points away from 18th placed Blackburn Rovers. This will be their third meeting with the Canaries this season, having won 1-0 at Carrow Road in a controversial encounter back in September, they were defeated 2-1 at home last time out.

Chris Brunt, West Brom’s influential skipper is out with a serious knee injury – a blow handed to them early in the new year. Brunt had led the assist charts for West Brom, proving a creative spark in the midfield. There’s no doubt he’s missed. Shane Long leads the scoring charts for the Baggies, having been impressive since stepping up to the Premiership from Championship nearly men Reading. An eye for goal, pace, strength and an ability to prove a right nonsense, Long is a difficult player to come up against. Alongside him usually is sat Peter Odemwingie, the Nigerian striker scored the winner when the two sides met in September, while drawing Ruddy into a fine save in the early January meeting. Speculation is rife that he may be off to West Ham, a bizarre move – though nothing is yet to materialize as yet. Should Odemwingie be off, West Brom also have Simon Cox in their ranks – after a hattrick against Cardiff in the previous round of the FA Cup, Cox has been back amongst the first-team.

THE CANARIES

Norwich are on fine form of late, perhaps even proving a little better on the road rather than Carrow Road. The Canaries have claimed 2 valuable wins on the road at West Brom and QPR, while managing to claim an impressive clean sheet, first of the season in fact, against Chelsea. The Canaries can boast an impressive record of having lost just twice in their last 10 games. Those defeats coming against Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Losing to that pair is certainly far from a disgrace, and performances continue to look solid. A major plus for City fans is the emergence of a solid back four, Daniel Ayala and Zak Whitbread especially seem to be building a promising partnership at the back. Both are good in the air, while Ayala looks exceptional with his feet – with that first clean sheet finally coming, who knows? Maybe it’s lift off for Zak and Dani.

Lambert will certainly be faced with a few selection dilemmas on Saturday. John Ruddy admitted in a recent interview he expects to play, as Norwich are taking the competition very seriously. Marc Tierney is now back in contention after recovering from a groin injury, there’s a chance he could make an appearance as presumably on paper it would be a decent game for him to slot back into the side. Then again the impressive performances of Naughton at left-back may leave Tierney with a wait. Elliott Ward has also returned from injury, yet looks rusty, although the return of James Vaughan is an interesting one. The summer signing looked sharp and scored a terrific header in the midweek, a place on the bench may be in the offing for Vaughany. Grant Holt has returned to form of late, proving impressive last time out against Chelsea while Steve Morison is always dangerous when he gets a chance. Improving at the back, while always dangerous going forwards, Norwich are a match for anyone.

COLKY’S CORNER

“Another weekend passes into Norwich history and it’s another one to remember. Our first clean sheet of the season (Against Chelsea, who would have thought!) and a point against one of the best teams in the country. Our unbeaten start to 2012 continues and Lambert maintains an incredible run of never having been doubled in a season in 2 and a half years. How many other teams can make that claim out side of the top teams in the country? We were on an equal footing for most of the first half and had plenty of chances to take the lead. Second half Chelsea certainly got on top but our defence (And some…Unlucky… finishing from Fernando Torres)meant we came through with that clean sheet and another point towards safety. 11 points clear of the bottom 3, 7 points off a European place. We are sitting pretty and looking good.
Many comparisons have been drawn between us and Blackpool from last season. There are obvious similarities. Punching above our weight. Playing attacking football. Getting lots of praise from the pundits either on the MOTD sofa or in the press. However, Norwich are a more rounded, full team with no reliance on one man (Unlike the Tangerines with Charlie Adam). We can also adapt to each game. Blackpool were colourful and fun, but only had one, direct style. This meant they were figured out in the second half of the season. Even if they were scoring plenty, they were always squandering leads and getting turned over far too often. You just don’t see that happening with Norwich. Lambert’s willingness to mix up the team, get every player into action in different formations, means that opponents can’t figure us out. It’s an amazing feeling to be doing so well and stunning all the critics who said we would go straight back down. It’s made all the sweeter by seeing money bags, QPR struggling. Not only are we over achieving and seemingly the most likely to stay up, but we are doing it the right way! This is probably the happiest I have been as a Norwich fan!

And now we move on to something very unusual! the potential for a cup run. Unheard over over the last 15 season, but we have finally gotten past the dreaded 3rd round, only to get, in my opinion, the worst draw possible. A game, away, against a similar level Prem team, who we played just 2 weeks before. Could there ever be a worse draw than that? At least with a big club you could get a sort of upset. But it’s just another Prem game now. Might as well have not bothered. But ho hum, onto the game we go. We know exactly what WBA are like, what with the aforementioned recent fixture, so you would think Lambert will know how he is going to approach this. He has shown his intent with the team he put out for the Burnley game. And this time around I expect much the same. I think he will stick with the 4-4-2 that we played against Chelsea and go more for the attack rather than the counter-attacking football displayed 2 weeks ago. Brom will have probably wised up to that. I say get Bennett and Pilkington down the wings with Holty and Moro in the middle and just bombard that penalty area. Hit them hard and fast and hopefully they will be caught napping. It’s been a while since we had a really attacking display from the boys, Burnley not included, so it would be nice to see Lambert mix it up and really go at Brom. If it doesn’t work out, oh well, we tried it, lets focus on the League. If it works, great! We have gotten through and we could have another dimension to use in the League. A win win in my opinion. I think if we really attack Brom we can do good things. Bag a few more goals aswell!

3-1 to City and hopefully we don’t get such an awful draw for the 5th round!”

WEB CONNECTION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9mpqU8FupE, here we have an interview with John Ruddy for the show ‘Talking Balls’, the big man comes across well, cracking a few jokes – such as the temptation to kick a ball at Andre Villas-Boas when he’s crouching, whilst also describing his goal celebration as a roar! Although a little long, it’s a decent watch.

DISCUSSION POINT

Could we win the FA Cup?! We’re a decent side, comfortably slotted in mid table, relegation doesn’t look a problem – though I’m not counting my chickens just yet – so why not give it a go? Manchester City are already out, one of Liverpool and Manchester united will be gone after the weekend – meaning there’s a real chance to progress. Of course the old cliche will tell us its the luck of the draw, but I fancy us to give it a right go. What do you reckon? Could the Canaries be chirping at Wembley?

SP’S PREDICTION

I feel we’re taking this seriously. We caused Chelsea problems, we gave them a good game and I feel the Albion are poor at home at present. Yes, cup games are a different kettle of fish at times pressure wise, though I fancy City to comfortably progress with a 2-0 victory.

In: Cory Varney Thread By: Supermarket Prodigy [391 ] Posted: 114 days ago